“And the Things Which He Prayed Cannot Be Written”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

Mormon records that Jesus’ prayer was so remarkable that words can neither record the essence of the Savior’s prayer nor capture the spiritual feelings that entered into the hearts of the people as they became witnesses of perfect prayer.

The reason that words cannot describe such prayers is not that they are secret, but rather that mortal language cannot adequately capture the language of the Spirit. “In the pure and perfect and proper sense, no one can speak or pray in the name of Christ unless he speaks or prays by the power of the Holy Ghost,” Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote. “It is within our capability, as the Lord’s people, to do this because ’we have the mind of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:16)” (New Witness, p. 383).

The kind of perfect communication that the Savior exemplified among the Nephites is born of the Spirit-it is the divine standard we should seek to meet with our own prayers (see 3 Nephi 19:16-36; see also Robert L. Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie, In His Holy Name, pp. 54-57).

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 4

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